Lawmaker: Impeach Officials Who Issue Homosexual Marriage Licenses, Refuse to Defend Marriage Laws

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Photo Credit: LifeSiteNewsPennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane has followed the lead of Barack Obama and Jerry Brown by refusing to uphold the state’s law protecting marriage between one man and one woman. At least one legislator thinks it is time she paid for violating her oath of office.

State Rep. Daryl Metcalfe, R-Butler, has said Kane’s actions merit impeachment, because they spread “lawlessness.”

“I think breaking the law is worthy of impeachment,” Metcalfe told local media. “Her duty is to defend the law.

Shortly after her announcement, Montgomery County Register of Wills D. Bruce Hanes began issuing marriage licenses to homosexuals, despite the fact that state law forbids such unions. As of Friday afternoon, Hanes had issued 62 marriage licenses to homosexual couples, and 13 of their recipients have completed wedding ceremonies.

“By her example, this Montgomery County official felt emboldened to violate the law also,” Metcalfe said.

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Spectator Loses Part of Leg in California Power Plant Implosion (+videos)

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Photo Credit: CNNA man standing more than 1,000 feet away lost part of one leg when he was hit by debris from a power plant implosion early Saturday, police in Bakersfield, California, said.

Two other people injured by flying shrapnel were treated on the scene.

The scheduled implosion of the Kern Power Plant in Bakersfield occurred at 6 a.m. (9 a.m. ET).

The man with the most significant injuries was airlifted to Fresno to be treated, police Lt. Scott Tunnicliffe told CNN. One leg was partially amputated and the other was severely injured, Tunnicliffe said.

One of the injured spectators showed his injuries to a news crew from CNN affiliate KGET. The man’s right leg was bandaged just below the knee and around the ankle. He was treated by medical crews at the scene before going home.

KGET News Report:

Raw Video:

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Heritage Foundation: WH ‘Flouting the Law’ with Obamacare Subsidies for Congress

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Photo Credit: BreitbartPolitico reported that the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) will issue a ruling next week that will allow the federal government to subsidize the insurance plans Congressmen and their aides will be forced to buy on government healthcare exchanges due to Obamacare.

The news came just hours after the Heritage Foundation released an embargoed study to reporters that found there was no legal way for the administration to offer subsidies for Members of Congress and their aides without passing a legislative “fix.”

The Obama administration may have tried to preempt the release of that study; one of the study’s co-authors insisted to Breitbart News on Friday that no matter how creative the Obama administration gets, there does not seem to be a legal manner in which the federal government can grant the Obamacare subsidies.

Ed Haislmaier and Robert E. Moffitt, both of whom are Senior Research Fellows in the Center for Health Policy Studies at The Heritage Foundation, and Joseph A. Morris, an attorney in private practice who served as General Counsel of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management from 1981 to 1985, co-authored the study, titled, “Congress in the Obamacare Trap: No Easy Escape.”

Haislmaier emphasized to Breitbart News that “we don’t see a legal avenue, no matter how creative, for them.”

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Hacker’s Untimely Death Mourned at Las Vegas Black Hat Convention

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Photo Credit: Isaac Brekken/APBarnaby Jack, the hackers’ hacker, was once again the toast of the Black Hat convention in Las Vegas.

He won an award. He drew packed crowds. His face adorned buttons and posters. His name was on everyone’s lips.

Except this time Jack was dead, the honours were posthumous and the gatherings were memorials. There were eulogies and questions: how did he die? What will happen to his work?

…The 35-year-old New Zealander was due to show how cyber criminals could remotely attack people with pacemakers and other implanted medical devices, but on July 25 was found dead at his home in San Francisco…

Friends said intellectual curiosity drove Jack to see if a villain could remotely hijack technology to steal, in the case of ATMs, or even kill, in the case of insulin pumps and pacemakers. He showed that a scene in which a terrorist kills a character in the TV series Homeland was not necessarily outlandish. “He had a flair for doing this that almost no one in our industry has,” said Chris Wysopol, a longtime friend and chief technical officer of Veracode. “Barnaby liked the excitement, the thrill of the hunt.”

Banks and medical equipment manufacturers shuddered when he probed their technology. “They always groaned. When someone outside your company does this it’s scary,” said Wysopol…

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Police Officer Shoots and Kills Armed 14-Year-Old Boy on NYC Street

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Photo Credit: G.N. MILLERA rookie police officer shot and killed a 14-year-old boy on a street early Sunday after he refused to drop his gun and pointed it in the direction of officers, authorities said.

Shaaliver Douse died of a single gunshot to his jaw after the confrontation in the Melrose section of the Bronx.

Two officers with the New York Police Department were on foot patrol when they heard gunfire at around 3 a.m. The officers responded to the scene and found the boy with a 9mm handgun firing shots at a fleeing man, authorities said.

Police released two surveillance videos Sunday evening that show a man they’ve identified as Douse, wearing a white T-shirt and jeans, fire at a group of men standing outside a bodega and then chasing after one of them. Police said Douse fired four shots in all.

The officers identified themselves as police and ordered him to drop his weapon, authorities said.

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Rand Paul: ‘Old Guard’ Losing Elections

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Photo Credit: APSen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said he agrees with those that say there is pushback from the Republican establishment when the party faces heat from factions such as the libertarian wing.

Newt Gingrich said Thursday that he thinks the establishment is growing “more hysterical” as Paul and fellow Republican Sen. Ted Cruz rise in prominence. Paul said Friday on “The Laura Ingraham Show” that he thinks the establishment needs to welcome new ideas.

“I think there’s some truth to that and I think the other thing about it is that the old guard needs to realize they’re the ones that have been losing the last couple of elections,” Paul said. “If we want to win for presidency we have to compete in the states where we’re not competing. Precisely, up in the northeast and on the west coast where Republicans are basically on life support. We need to reach out with issues that may attract new people to the party.”

One of the most divisive issues in the GOP has been the threat from some, including Paul, Cruz and fellow Sen. Mike Lee, to shut down the government as a means to defund Obamacare. Paul said he does not support shutting down the government, but rather using the continuing resolution as leverage against the president’s signature health care law.

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Will Senate Dems Use ‘Nuclear Option’ to Confirm Judges?

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A senior Senate Democrat is eyeing the “nuclear option” to eliminate filibusters of nominations — this time for circuit court judges.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick J. Leahy says Democrats should bring back the idea of changing the rules with a simple majority if Republicans block nominees to a federal appeals court.

“I think that the rules change will come back on the table if it’s filibustered because it is one thing if you had somebody who is not qualified. These people are extraordinarily well-qualified,” the Vermont Democrat said of three nominees pending to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals in an interview that will air Sunday on C-SPAN’s “Newsmakers.”

Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said last month that his plan to change the Senate’s procedures with a simple majority vote (the “nuclear option”) would have applied only to executive branch nominees, not judges. Reid ultimately struck a deal with Arizona Sen. John McCain and other Republicans to avoid that outcome.

It’s not clear that Reid would have had the votes to push through a simple majority rule for judges, although the No. 3 Senate Democrat, Charles E. Schumer of New York, suggested the possibility of a rules change to fill the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals in March.

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House Republicans Feel Summer Recess Heat on Immigration

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Photo Credit: APHouse Republicans are facing heavy pressure from both sides of the immigration debate as they return to their home districts for August recess with no clear indication as to how they’ll vote on the issue.

The decision to pass comprehensive immigration reform has essentially been in the hands of the Republican-controlled House since the Democrat-led Senate passed such a bill in June.

House Republicans were under pressure before they even left their Capitol Hill offices to start the five-week recess, which is traditionally dedicated to face-to-face talks with hometown voters.

The American Federation of Government Employees sent a letter Tuesday to House lawmakers urging them not to work with senators on their “dangerous” bill.

Among the major concerns is that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is not equipped to process the potential onslaught of new applications.

Read more from this story HERE.

Kerry: Egypt’s ‘Military Did Not Take Over’ (+video)

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By Jeryl Bier

During his visit to Pakistan on Thursday, Secretary of State John Kerry gave several TV interviews including one to Hamid Mir of Geo TV. Mir’s first question for Kerry concerned Egypt. The Obama administration has resisted referring to the military action in Egypt as a coup, but in this interview, Kerry went even further, asserting that “the military did not take over, to the best of our judgment so – so far,” and that its intervention was at the request of “millions and millions of people” concerned about the increasing chaos in the country [emphasis added]:

QUESTION: Thank you very much for giving us time. My first question is about your commitment with democracy. The U.S. believes in democracy, U.S. is a champion of democracy all over the world. But why U.S. is not taking a clear position on military intervention against the democratically elected government of President Morsy in Egypt?

SECRETARY KERRY: Well, it’s a very appropriate and important question, and I want to answer it very directly. The military was asked to intervene by millions and millions of people, all of whom were afraid of a descendance into chaos, into violence. And the military did not take over, to the best of our judgment so – so far. To run the country, there’s a civilian government. In effect, they were restoring democracy.

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Photo Credit: WNDEgypt Hurtling Toward Civil War?

By F. Michael Maloof

As demonstrations increase in intensity in Egypt between the military backers and Muslim Brotherhood supporters, concern mounts that the conflict could lead to major confrontations and civil war, according to a report in Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin.

Members of the Muslim Brotherhood have ratcheted up demonstrations demanding the reinstatement of President Mohammad Morsi, who was elected last year but ousted by the military after one year in office.

These demonstrations have resulted in increased clashes with the military, raising concerns the confrontations could become more widespread.

Now, the military has added fuel to the fire by accusing Morsi of conspiring with the Palestinian militant group Hamas in killing some 14 guards, while getting help in his 2011 escape from prison.

As WND recently reported, the Brotherhood also has announced the creation of the Egyptian Free Army, a reflection of a similar army created by the opposition in Syria to oust Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. A civil war has been under way there for two years, and some 100,000 people have been killed.

Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: WNDFeds plan to give Egypt armed-to-the-teeth ships

By Steve Peacock

The U.S. Senate has rejected an effort to crack down on U.S. taxpayer monies being forwarded to the violence-ridden nation of Egypt, and now the Obama administration is preparing to send more heavily armed, missile-equipped naval patrol ships to the interim government there.

For that purpose, Washington is hiring private contractors to make the transoceanic delivery on its behalf.

This shipment of Fast Missile Craft, or FMC, comes at a time when congressional interest in suspending U.S. military aid to Egypt had heated up – to the point there was a Senate proposal to cut it off. That aid, according to federal law, must be suspended in response to military coups.

But the White House refuses to designate the military overthrow of deposed President Mohamed Morsi as a coup, and therefore has expressed no more than a commitment to review U.S.-Egyptian aid.

The U.S. Senate this week shot down, 86-13, Sen. Rand Paul’s proposed amendment to the transportation spending bill that would have redirected “certain foreign assistance to the government of Egypt as a result of the July 3, 2013, military coup d’état.” Read more from this story HERE.

Mexican Cartels Hiring US Soldiers as Hit Men

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Photo Credit: Fox NewsMexican cartels are recruiting hit men from the U.S. military, offering big money to highly-trained soldiers to carry out contract killings and potentially share their skills with gangsters south of the border, according to law enforcement experts.

The involvement of three American soldiers in separate incidents, including a 2009 murder that led to last week’s life sentence for a former Army private, underscore a problem the U.S. military has fought hard to address.

“We have seen examples over the past few years where American servicemen are becoming involved in this type of activity,” said Fred Burton, vice president for STRATFOR Global Intelligence. “It is quite worrisome to have individuals with specialized military training and combat experience being associated with the cartels.”

The life sentence handed down in El Paso District court July 25 to an Army private hired by the Juarez Cartel to be the triggerman in a 2009 hit in this border city is the most recent case.

Michael Apodaca, 22, was a private first-class stationed at nearby Fort Bliss Army Base and was attached to the 11th Air Defense Artillery Brigade when he was recruited and paid $5,000 by the Juarez Cartel to shoot and kill Jose Daniel Gonzalez-Galeana, a cartel member who had been outed as an informant for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Apodaca, who was the triggerman in the May 15, 2009, hit, was sentenced in El Paso District Court July 25.

Read more from this story HERE.